Still, this past year in particular, her old soul has served her well. In the months following the night of February 8, when fellow pop star Brown committed the crime that would earn him five years of probation for felony assault, Rihanna refrained from acting out at clubs or in front of paparazzi cameras. She refused to wage any sort of war or publicity campaign in the tabloids. Looking back, she says she is proud of herself for remaining the quiet eye of the storm. “Not talking was a big thing for me,” says Rihanna, whose 13th tattoo, procured on Avenue B in New York’s East Village just the night before this interview, is visible, still raised and reddened, on the right side of her collarbone. It reads never a failure, always a lesson, but backward so she can read it when she looks in the mirror. “I’m glad I didn’t talk to people, because I was able to deal with things in my own way, without saying the wrong things or giving people the wrong impression.”